Startup Weekend: From ideation to execution over the course of 54 hours

Startup Weekend, a global organization committed to delivering premier experiential education for entrepreneurs, conducted its events in India for the first time, earlier last month (click here to read the story that we did about their launch in India).The two editions of Startup Weekend, in New Delhi & Bangalore, were major successes and we at YourStory have learnt that two of the startups which were conceived and kicked off at Startup Weekend are currently in talks with investors for seed capital. One of them is Social Shout, a rewards system based on user activity on social networks. Social Shout was the winner of Startup Weekend Bangalore (click here to read the first-person account of Trent Anthony, the person who conceived the idea of Social Shout).

Speaking about Startup Weekend, Vijay Shukla of Setu Ventures (who was one of the speakers at Startup Weekend Delhi) said, "When I got the invitation to speak at the Start-up Weekend event at American Chambers in Delhi, I was not given any topic before hand and therefore, I was not sure if there would be more than 15-20 entrepreneurs. I assumed that it would be a small event. In addition, I also thought that, as most such conferences, there would be entrepreneurs attend primarily to raise money.

I was pleased to see a a healthy number of entrepreneurs/to-be entrepreneurs. I observed a high energy level exhibited amongst the entrepreneur eco-system, specially during the interaction. I really liked the the format of the event – one minute of pitch followed by team creation and subsequent getting down to ‘work' and it was heartening to see a visibly sincere need amongst the entrepreneurs to do something on their own. I would have liked to see more In depth pre-work done by the entrepreneurs for the event and more non-technology business ideas.

Having said that, the event was quite professionally managed and thoroughly planned. And as the old saying goes, well begun is half done. I wish the teams all the best."

To know more about the startups that were built over one weekend at Bangalore, click here. To view the startups that were formed in Delhi, click here. We at YourStory wish the teams much success and we sincerely hope to see huge success stories emerging out of this initiative.